Weather instruments are easy to make at home with a few basic things you might already have around the house. Try these three homemade weather devices, and keep a record of your local activity. Learn from recurring patterns in your charts to predict weather cycles. Impress your friends by being more accurate than your local news with weather equipment you made yourself.
Wind Vane
Draw a large, chubby fish with a slightly smaller tail on a clean, dry foam meat tray and cut it out. Glue a plastic drinking straw onto your foam fish running from belly to spine.
Plug an upside-down flower-pot drain hole with a large cork, and insert the sharpened end of a 2-foot-long by 1/8th-inch-narrow wooden dowel. Use a permanent marker to write North, South, East and West on the top surface of your pot, surrounding the cork. Set your pot where it is intended to be used, and with a compass correctly line up the directional markings on the pot.
Slide three large beads onto the dowel to rest at the base on the cork. Slide the straw and foam fish onto the dowel once the glue has bonded them. Now slide one more cork onto the dowel resting a couple of inches above the top of the straw. Watch your vane blow in the wind to see how it reacts to changes in wind.
Hygrometer
Purchase two identical thermometers that are rated for use outdoors. You will find small, inexpensive options at most hardware stores, or you can quickly disassemble a couple of matching window-suction thermometers found at a garden or thrift store.
Mount the thermometers side by side on a small wooden plank. Attach one end of a wet shoelace to the bottom of one of the thermometers by wrapping it around the base twice before tying a knot to hold it in position. Run the other end along with most of the length of the shoelace into a small bowl or glass of water.
Dry air will cause evaporation and cooling of the thermometer attached to the water source. Mark the difference in temperature between the two. Humid air will not cause evaporation, and temperature levels will register similarly.
Barometer
Mount a rigid bottle by strapping it upside down onto a wood plank that is slightly larger. Two-liter plastic bottles are too flimsy for this device; you must find something strong that can be sealed airtight.
Use modelling clay to create an airtight seal around a straight 6-inch piece of thin, clear tubing protruding at least 4 inches from your bottle's mouth. The tubing must also be rigid so that its internal pressure is not affected once sealed.
Retrieve a standard plastic cap from the top of any 2-liter bottle, and fill it completely with mineral oil. Dip one end of the plastic tubing into the mineral oil-filled cap without touching the bottom. Use hot glue to affix the bottle cap into position directly below the inverted bottle and place your instrument in a shady, stable place.
Glue a blank 3x5 card on the wood behind the strip of tubing that runs from the bottle to the cap. Mark the levels of mineral oil as air pressure pushes it up the tube.
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